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<title>Darkspawn Don't Take Holidays by danceswithhamsters01</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26401945">Darkspawn Don't Take Holidays</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/danceswithhamsters01/pseuds/danceswithhamsters01'>danceswithhamsters01</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Reddit Prompts 2: Because the old one is quite full [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Darkspawn, Gen, Grey Wardens, POV Child, Rescue, Short, darkspawn attack</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 11:13:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>903</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26401945</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/danceswithhamsters01/pseuds/danceswithhamsters01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>based on a prompt from r/dragonage</p>
<p>Prompt 1: One Word Prompt (base your response on the word chosen for this prompt): Silver</p>
<p>Jemma and her family are rescued from a Darkspawn attack on their farm.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Reddit Prompts 2: Because the old one is quite full [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1918846</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Darkspawn Don't Take Holidays</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jemma huddled in the closet, clutching her little sister and brother tightly. Mum had told her to get them somewhere safe, that something bad was coming. Da and Uncle Marv had gone out with their hunting bows to do something about the invaders. <em>Something </em>had been killing the sheep the past few days and judging from what the creature or creatures left behind, wolves were certainly not behind it.</p>
<p>Oswin began crying again. Panic made Jemma’s hand cover his mouth before she’d had a second to think about what she was doing.</p>
<p>“Quiet! Do you want the bad people to find us?” she hissed.</p>
<p>He didn’t get a chance to answer before some sort of unnatural shriek filled the air. Jemma’s blood felt like ice when she heard her mother’s scream. She had to grip her sister, Lillian, fiercely to keep the young girl from bolting out of their hiding spot.</p>
<p>“No,” she hissed, “stay here! Mum told us to stay safe!”</p>
<p>Then the sound of something being broken down – the front door, perhaps? – caught her ear.</p>
<p>“Shit! A shriek! Kill it before it can drag her off!” a different woman’s voice bellowed.</p>
<p>The whistling of arrows being fired, squelchy thumps, and a death gurgle reached the ears of the youngsters. Murmuring voices that none of them could decipher came next. When the door to the closet began to jiggle, it took all the wits that Jemma could manage to find in order to not scream. With an ominous creak, the door slowly swung open.</p>
<p>“Hey there!” a short woman with tattoos that covered most of her face said in a perky voice. “Jemma, Lillian, and Oswin, I presume?”</p>
<p>Was… was she a dwarf? Jemma could only nod in reply, taking note of the stylized silver griffon in the middle of the small woman’s cuirass. A Warden? A Grey Warden, here? “Mm-mm… our mum... is she…?”</p>
<p>The short Warden offered Jemma a hand up. “Alive. We’ll get her to a healer soon. Come with me. I’m Sigrun, by the way.”</p>
<p>“I’m guessing it wasn’t bandits comin’ after our sheep?” Oswin said as he got up to follow the dwarf.</p>
<p>Sigrun shook her head. “Afraid not. But don’t worry, we’ll make sure the monsters won’t hurt anyone ever again.”</p>
<p>The four of them made their way downstairs where they found another Warden, a pale human man with dark hair and a rather large nose, tying a ripped up bit of table cloth around a wound on their mother’s leg. He helped the woman to her feet, one arm around her waist to steady her. Relief washed over their mother’s face as the children ran up to her.</p>
<p>“Oh, thank the Maker! Thank you! I was afraid they’d...”</p>
<p>“Not if we could help it,” the man said in a gruff voice.</p>
<p>Jemma spared a glance to her right, over to where what used to be the kitchen stood. The… thing… that’d attacked mother was most assuredly dead, what with more than six arrows protruding from its remains. She shivered and buried her face in mother’s side, the monster looked sick and twisted, unlike anything she’d ever seen or heard of in stories.</p>
<p>“Where’s the boss lady?” Sigrun asked.</p>
<p>A wet sounding series of pops from outside rang out before he could answer. “Outside having too much fun with her bomb spells, as usual.”</p>
<p>“Ohh, I think I got twelve that time!” a gleeful feminine voice crowed.</p>
<p>The Wardens escorted the family outside, where they saw a petite human woman with long dark hair standing in the middle of the carnage with a smirk on her face while leaning on a staff. The smirk melted away the instant she saw their mother’s limp, prompting her to run up to the group. She made their mother sit down and asked her rapid-fire questions as she unwrapped the wound and inspected it. After mother answered her, the mage made strange gestures with her hands, causing them the glow with a green light. As she held her glowing hands over the wound, it slowly began to close.</p>
<p>“Nathaniel, get her on a horse. She’ll need to come stay at the keep for a while.”</p>
<p>“Yes, Commander.”</p>
<p>“Why does mum have to leave? What about Da and Uncle Marv?” Oswin asked.</p>
<p>The Commander turned and regarded the boy as she bit her lip. “We need to make certain that she isn’t sick. It’s the kind of sickness that can spread. As for your father and uncle, we’ll need to find them first. You lot are the first living people we’ve found so far.”</p>
<p>Jemma felt her heart lurch.<em> Old man Sven and his wife? The Bartlebees down the road? They were…?</em> What about the people in the nearby village? Lillian began crying. The mage sank to her knees and caught the girl’s gaze.</p>
<p>“We’ll do everything we can, I promise. Does your family have a wagon?”</p>
<p>Lillian nodded.</p>
<p>The mage stood up. “Nate, can you drive a wagon? I sure as hell can’t. Get it hitched up, get them and their mother on to it and bugger off to the keep as fast as you can. And tell Anders we might have more than one who’ll need to be under quarantine. Sigrun and I will look for the men.”</p>
<p>Later, as the wagon bounced and rumbled down the path, Jemma found herself wondering just what exactly the word “quarantine” meant.</p>
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